Snapped

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Virginia Larzelere Aug 6, 2004 In 1997, 32-year-old Celeste Beard hit the jackpot. That year, the thrice-divorced Austin housekeeper married her 75-year-old millionaire employer, Steven Beard. Suddenly, Celeste had it all: a Texas mansion, plenty of money, and a stable life for her two daughters. But on October 2, 1999, Celeste's picture-perfect life came crashing down with one blast from a 20-guage shotgun. That night, an armed intruder slipped into Steven's bedroom and fired a point-blank shot directly into his chest. Steven survived the initial shot, but five months later, died from complications related to his injury. By then, however, Texas authorities had a suspect in custody--Celeste's lesbian best friend, Tracey Tarlton. The former bookstore manager eventually implicated Celeste in the plot to kill her husband. At the trial, defense attorneys alleged Tarlton was simply a jealous woman with a terrifying and deadly love interest in Celeste. Prosecutors, on the other hand, claimed the Celeste had manipulated her fiend into perpetrating the shooting in order to inherit Steven's vast fortune. To support their claim, prosecutors even called Celeste's own daughters to the stand. Both girls testified that their mother had sought a hit man to silence Tracey before her arrest. The jury found Celeste guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced her to 20 years in prison.

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Celeste Beard Johnson Aug 6, 2004 Virginia Larzelere was well off, even by coastal Florida's relatively high standards. Her husband Norman was a successful Daytona Beach dentist, and Virginia enjoyed a beautiful home, expensive cars, a yacht and an airplane. But the good times came to an abrupt end on March 8, 1991, when a masked gunman broke into Norman's office and killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest. In the murder investigation that ensued, police quickly discovered that the Larzelere family was anything but ordinary. It appeared that the couple financed their lavish lifestyle by funneling narcotics through Norman's dental practice, and both engaged in numerous extramarital affairs. Digging deeper, the cops also uncovered a two-million dollar life insurance policy that Virginia had taken out on her husband. Then, the Larzelere's live-in help, Steve Heidel, came forward with the exact location of the murder weapon. Heidel told police that Virginia and her son, Jason, had asked him to dispose of the weapon following the shooting. On May 5, 1991, both Virginia and Jason were charged with first-degree murder in the death of Norman Larzelere. At her trial, prosecutors described Virginia as an opportunist looking to cash in on her husband's hefty life insurance policy. The defense, however, argued that Steve Heidel was the actual mastermind behind the murder. In the end, the jury sided with prosecutors and sentenced Virginia to death. In a separate trial seven months later, Jason Larzelere was acquitted on all charges.

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Clara Harris Aug 13, 2004 Few smiles were brighter than those of Clara and David Harris. Both dentists, they shared a thriving practice and a seemingly perfect marriage. But that changed in July of 2003, when Clara began to suspect her husband was having an affair with his secretary. Intent on catching them in the act, Clara hired a private detective to tail the couple around town. A few days later, the detective called Clara to tell her that he had followed David and his secretary to a hotel rendezvous - the same hotel that Clara and David had been married in. Enraged over the news, Clara grabbed her stepdaughter and drove to the hotel to confront David. When Clara saw him exit the building, she gunned her Mercedes and ran over him - several times. At her trial, Clara's attorneys said she had been pushed to the limit by her difficult-to-please husband. According to the defense, Clara had quit her practice, hired a personal trainer and undergone plastic surgery in an effort to make David happy. But the jury showed her little sympathy, especially after watching a videotape of the vehicular homicide that had been taped by, ironically, the detective Clara had hired to tail David. Convicted of 2nd degree murder, she's currently serving a 20-year sentence.

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Elena Kiejliches Aug 20, 2004 Russian émigré Elena Kiejliches was living the American dream. At 36, she had two beautiful children, a millionaire husband, and a sprawling mansion in Staten Island's upscale Toldt Hill neighborhood. But Elena's fairytale life came crashing down in March of 2000, when her husband, Borys, went missing. A month later, Borys turned back up - dead and dismembered in a cardboard barrel found floating in a marsh in Queens. Police first suspected the Russian mob in Borys' death. But the focus of their investigation soon shifted to Elena after they learned she had been having an affair with a man named Messiah Justice, an aspiring rapper and con artist. Following an interrogation with Justice, police charged the Russian housewife with murder. At trial, Justice testified that he had helped Elena dispose of Borys' body, but that the Russian housewife had pulled the trigger herself. The prosecution contended that Elena had shot Borys after he had threatened to divorce her and leave her destitute. The defense, however, painted Justice as an opportunist looking to cut a deal with the DA. The jury found Elena guilty of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison.

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Kimberly Hricko Aug 27, 2004 A bright and bubbly surgical technician, Kim Hricko led a comfortable middle-class existence with her husband, Steven. But the Hricko's sunny, suburban image vanished in smoke and flame on Valentine's weekend of 1998 when Steve and Kim went on a romantic getaway at a golf resort on Maryland's Eastern Shore. As part of the special Valentine's package, the resort staged a murder mystery play where guests watched the staged whodunit and then attempted to solve the puzzle. But after the play, the plot thickened when the couple's room caught fire and Stephen's charred body was discovered on the hotel room floor. Though Kim claimed her husband had gotten drunk and died from smoke inhalation, the resulting autopsy showed no signs of either alcohol or carbon monoxide anywhere in his body. At Kim's trial, the prosecution argued that she had knocked Stephen out with Succinylcholine - a nearly untraceable muscle paralyzer used in surgery - in order to collect on his $400,000 life insurance policy. Found guilty on both charges, she's currently serving life plus 30 years for arson and murder.

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Lee Ann Reidel Sep 3, 2004 Lee Ann Reidel always had a thing for hunky men. So when she married Long Island gym owner Paul Reidel in 1998, everyone thought it was the perfect match. Lee Ann just had one small problem with her new husband - his crack cocaine addiction. In July of 2000, Lee Ann took the couple's infant son and moved in with her mom in Florida. After being separated for six months, the couple reconciled when Paul agreed to go into rehab. But just when things were starting to look up for the Reidel family, tragedy struck. On January 17, 2001, a gunman shot someone fitting Paul's description outside his gym in Long Island. When the police arrived at the scene, it wasn't Paul that lay dead on the asphalt, it was his partner and best friend, Alex Algeri. Detectives made their first break in the case when they arrested a drug-abusing bodybuilder named Scott Pagett. In his interrogation, Pagett fingered a Florida strip-club bouncer named Ralph "Rocco" Salierno as the actual triggerman. Pressing Pagett more, investigators discovered that Rocco and Lee Ann were having an affair. With the information in hand, authorities immediately charged the two for the murder of Alex Algeri. At their trial, prosecutors alleged that Algeri was the unintended victim of a scheme to murder Paul Reidel for his insurance money. Though Lee Ann and Rocco each tried to pin the murder on each other, the jury found them both guilty and sentenced the former lovers to life in prison.

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Ruth Ann Aron Sep 10, 2004 Ruthann Aron was an overachiever. The wife of a respected urologist in the upscale D.C. suburb of Potomac, Maryland, Ruthann was a successful real estate developer and aspiring politician. In 1994, she made a run to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, but lost, partly due to a local attorney who dogged the campaign with allegations of shady business deals. Ruthann, however, was undeterred. In 1997, she was gearing up to run for a Montgomery County commission seat. But her political ambitions were thwarted yet again when a local landfill operator went to the police claiming she'd approached him about finding a hit man. After an elaborate sting operation, Ruthann was arrested for soliciting the murders of, not just her old political nemesis, but her husband as well. At trial, prosecutors claimed Ruthann feared her marriage was heading for a divorce, which might hurt her political career. In addition to the testimony of the landfill operator and the undercover cops, the prosecution had Ruthann's own voice on surveillance tapes literally spelling out the names of her intended victims. Faced with overwhelming evidence, Ruthann's attorneys argued that Ruthann was mentally ill. The trial resulted in a hung jury. Ruthann then pled no contest and served three years in the county jail.

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Adele Craven Feb 20, 2005 Adele and Steven Craven were the perfect suburban couple. Adele was a trained mortician; Steven was a high-flying Delta Airlines pilot with a sky-high salary. They had a beautiful home in upscale Covington, Kentucky; their two young sons loved their school; and Steven could reach the Delta hub at Cincinnati in minutes. Being close to the airport was also convenient for Adele. Unbeknownst to Steven, she was having an affair with Delta baggage handler Rusty McIntyre. But the lovers needed more space-the cops had already caught them having sex in a car in a church parking lot-and they wanted Steven's $500,000 life insurance payoff. So Adele got Rusty to hire a hit man. For $15,000, small-time crook Ronald Pryor agreed to bludgeon Steven to death with a crow bar. On the morning of July 12, 2000, the three attacked Steven in the Craven's basement. When twelve blows of the crow bar didn't kill her husband, Adele gave Pryor a loaded pistol to finish the job. Within days, all three were arrested and charged with murder. Tried together in June 2001, McIntyre and Pryor were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Adele cried at her trial in November 2002, swearing she was innocent and dearly loved Steven, a good man and a good father. Steven's murder was McIntyre's idea, she said. He stalked her, spied on her, seduced her, and when she tried to break up, he hired Pryor to kill her husband. To escape the death penalty, McIntyre turned State's witness, but Pryor refused to testify. The jury couldn't decide who to believe and on December 6 the judge declared a mistrial. In a second trial scheduled to begin in January 2004, both McIntyre and Pryor agreed to testify against Adele. Feeling the noose tighten around her neck, she pleaded guilty to masterminding the murder-for-hire plot. She received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for twenty years. All three are currently serving time in the Kentucky prison system.

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Rita Gluzman Feb 27, 2005 Rita Gluzman solicits her cousin to murder her estranged husband with an ax and dispose of his remains in the Passaic River in New Jersey in April 1996. When police discover garbage bags full of body parts being thrown into a river, Rita Gluzman becomes the prime suspect.

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Sharee Miller Mar 3, 2005 Investigation leads officials to an internet chatroom after Bruce Miller is shot to death in an apparent robbery gone bad.

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Elisa McNabney Mar 10, 2005 When successful attorney Larry McNabney's body is discovered in a Sacramento winery his wife Elisa is suspected of the crime.

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Teri Gilbert Mar 17, 2005 Albuquerque county commissioner Gene Gilbert is shot in his basement and his wife Teri is suspected of committing the crime.

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Donna Sommerville Mar 20, 2005 Donna Somerville, a hospice nurse, is suspected of murder in November 2001 when her wealthy husband's autopsy reveals poison in his stomach.

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Stephanie Stephens Apr 3, 2005 A flirty Oklahoma City Baptist Sunday school teacher and her insurance salesman lover are looking a t a cool $800,000. The only hitch is it's the payoff on her husband's like insurance policy. To get the money, they have to murder him--and that gets them the death penalty.